Cannon River Report

I hit one of my spots on the Cannon last night and the river is still pretty high. I wade fish this particular location but can only do so if the water is low. We haven’t had any rain for a while so I was shocked. At this rate it may never go down all the way. On a funny note a tuber told me there are good spots to fish the river and I wasn’t on one of them. I’m glad he thought that. For 15 years this spot has been good to me. Probably because it is not pounded like many of the shore access locations. All I caught last night was a giant sheephead. Once the water comes down it will be a different story. I couldn’t get to
“the hole” last night.

What do you fish for on the cannon? I know it is full of smallies. A few cats and walleyes. Whats your target?

My target is smallies and decent fish are not uncommon but I catch walleye, sauger and pike all in pretty skinny water. Catch rates change yearly. Some years sauger are pretty thick and others walleye. I have caught some wierdly big walleye. 3 in the upper 20’s. One of them was pushing 30. A giant deformed head grandpa of a walleye. I have a great story behind that fish. I consider them a fluke though and do not target them.
If you crank lures you will inevitably snag a carp. It’s fun for a while on light tackle but gets old for me after they take me down stream and I have to chase them to get my lure back. Caught a brown trout once. Pike are infrequent for me but they tend to be long. In the upper 20’s usually. The Cannon has some nice spots but for every good spot there are miles of dead water. I have one spot I can walk to and wade so i cant give it up. I will say a canoe ride opens the whole thing up.I have only did it once but found some beautiful water. Every hole seemed to specialize in a different primary fish. Very remote too except for the recreational tubers and canoers who seem to be rather obnoxious and rude as a whole. I might be looking for someone interested in canoeing it later this summer. I have a nice canoe but it takes two carry vehicles to make it work and my family is down to one so I can’t even go with my wife. You can easily spend a whole day going from Cannon Falls to Welch Village. Especially if the water is low and slow. There is also another take out point just above Welch a little ways.

I should add I am not an expert on this river. Most of my experiences are isolated to one stretch of water.

Yea. I did the canoe fishing thing from cannon falls to welch one time. It was a very pretty river. This was back when the dam was still at welch.
I also spent about 2 years shore fishing around welch on and off. We used to catch a few small saugers below the dam. A few walleyes, cats, and large carp.

O the good old days. Going down there to visit the grandparents farm and catching a few fish on the cannon.